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Official Selection PIFF 40

The Long Excuse

Directed by Miwa Nishikawa

Japan • 2016 • 123 mins. • In Japanese

Showtimes & Past Screenings

Celebrated novelist Tsumura is married to Natsuko, but their passion for each other has long disappeared. When she dies in a bus crash, he feels no sadness and has to feign grief in public. To his embarrassment, his calculated displays catch the attention of Omiya, the genuinely devastated husband of another of the crash victims, and Tsumura finds himself mysteriously drawn into the lives of the bereaved man and his two children. Nishikawa’s touching drama, laced with humor, tells the story of a self-centered man who finally finds connection outside himself.

Sponsored by the Consular Office of Japan in Portland

Reviews: Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Japan Times

Filmography: Dreams for Sale (2012), Dear Doctor (2009), Ten Nights of Dreams (2006), Sway (2006), Wild Berries (2003)

Appears in: 40th Portland International Film Festival, PIFF XL: Global Panorama

The Northwest Film Center recognizes and honors the Indigenous peoples of this region on whose ancestral lands the museum now stands. These include the Willamette Tumwater, Clackamas, Kathlemet, Molalla, Multnomah and Watlala Chinook Peoples and the Tualatin Kalapuya who today are part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and many other Native communities who made their homes along the Columbia River. We also want to recognize that Portland today is a community of many diverse Native peoples who continue to live and work here. We respectfully acknowledge and honor all Indigenous communities—past, present, future—and are grateful for their ongoing and vibrant presence.